Artist Brendan McCarthy has revealed concept art from an abandoned film adaptation of Kenneth Grahame’s Wind in the Willows.

The live-action film adaptation of The Wind in the Willows, was to be directed by Steve Barron, whom McCarthy had worked for before on Jim Henson’s The Storyteller. McCarthy told robot6 that the project ended because “Terry Jones and some of the Pythons got one into production first and kaboshed this version.”

“These have been gathering dust, unseen, for twenty years… it’s good to give an airing to what could have been a decent British film, from that ‘Handmade’ era. Sadly I have lost most of my film visuals material. I never thought it very important… I always considered my comics work to be the real deal…”.

I’m not a huge fan of the Monty Python version and it would have been interesting to see this one made. I love the 1995 animated version with Michael Gambon and Michael Palin with it’s beautiful, ethereal art. But I would love to see a return to the original anthropomorphic characters with CG animation.

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About The Author

Olga Hughes is currently pre-occupied with fairy tales, fantasy, misanthropy, medieval history and the long eighteenth century. She has a Bachelor of Fine Art from the Victorian College of the Arts and is currently majoring in Literature and History at Deakin. She has contributed to websites such as History behind Game of Thrones, The Anne Boleyn Files and The Tudor Society.

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